Amid TV news reports that BJP’s Pankaja Munde has met Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, the Maharashtra Congress said that she would be welcomed if she joins.
“She is welcome… if she wants to come she would be welcomed,” state Congress president Nana Patole said on being asked about the developments.
However, there is no immediate reaction either from Pankaja or BJP.
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Patole was speaking to reporters at the core committee of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee met in Mumbai in the wake of the political developments.
Pankaja is the daughter of late Gopinath Munde, a former Deputy Chief Minister and niece of late BJP stalwart Pramod Mahajan.
Pankaja was the rural development minister in the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP-Shiv Sena government between 2014-19, however, in 2019, she lost the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly polls from the family seat of Parli against her own cousin Dhananjay Munde of NCP and remains sidelined in the state politics.
She was neither accommodated in the Maharashtra Legislative Council nor Rajya Sabha by the BJP.
Pankaja’s sister Dr Pritam Munde is the BJP MP from Beed.
She was also not offered a ministerial berth when the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena-BJP government came to power in June 2022.
Earlier, Congress Legislature Party leader Balasaheb Thorat made an open offer to Pankaja to join the Congress.
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